Arriving to Post

Finally the day arrived for us to depart for Kingston! We were up pretty late doing last minute clean up of the apartment, so it was a bit of a rough early morning start! We were staying at the Oakwood in Crystal City, which is attached to the Marriott. The staff at the Marriott said it was fine for us to take their airport shuttle to DCA, so we caught the 5am shuttle in order to catch our flight to Miami. Yay for not having to deal with the hassle of arranging a van, etc. for pick up.

We had 6 checked bags (2 large duffles, 3 large suitcases, and Olivia's Pack n Play which we just checked as is and they didn't charge us for it), plus we had two carry on bags and her stroller/carseat. It wasn't too much of a pain to get the bags checked, luckily.

I was a bit nervous traveling with Olivia on the airplane, but she did great! She was either fast asleep or breastfeeding on take off and landing, and she only cried a little bit on the flights when she woke up and started to get hungry. 

Olivia with her passport and ticket in hand, ready to go!

Snug as a bug in her carseat- we had to wait a very long time for them to de-ice the plane but she waited patiently. We were the very first row in economy class, which was great because we didn't disturb anybody in front of us (since her carseat would have prevented a seat in front from being able to lean back).

She's ready!! 

Flying over Cuba

Flying over Jamaica

When we landed in Kingston, there was an Embassy driver there to pick us up, and he expedited us through customs and immigration (though by the time I changed Olivia's diaper, there was absolutely no line at immigration or customs). We didn't have money to tip the baggage handlers, which was an oversight on our part. Next time... 

The drive to our new place took a very long time- I would guess almost an hour due to the traffic since we were arriving right as school was letting out.

When we arrived, I had no idea what part of Kingston we were in, or even what our address was. It was a bit disorienting. The driver dropped us and our bags off and gave us our housekey. When we entered the house, my first thought was how huge it was. It's a 3 bedroom, 3.5 bathroom house with a nice little yard, a large living room, dining area, large kitchen, and a sitting area upstairs. We definitely have plenty of space- we just need to make sure we don't fill it, otherwise moving and packing will be painful! 

The house is fully furnished, so it's nice not to have to worry about that- though the furniture isn't quite in our taste, and there are soooo many pieces (so many end tables and dressers and armoires in this house). 

When someone new goes to their post, they are assigned a social sponsor. Our social sponsors, Gary and Laize, have been totally great. They prepped our house (put the dishes in the dishwasher, made the beds and put up the shower curtains, went grocery shopping and stocked our fridge/pantry with some things to get us started, and even got flowers and a little gift for Olivia!). They've also been showing us around Kingston, taking us to different places since we are without a car until our car clears customs. On our first night, they stopped by to make sure we were ok. Adam and I weren't quite sure what to do with ourselves and Adam was a bit nervous about his first day of work, since he didn't know his schedule or what to expect. Now he's in his routine and getting to know people, so he is a lot more comfortable. 

Our living room- there is a large space behind this area as well that we aren't sure what to use it for- Olivia's play area?

Our 8-person dining table- we can add a leaf to seat 10 if we wanted

Our kitchen (don't mind the mess on the table!)

The other side of our kitchen (to the right is the laundry area)

Flowers and local fruit from our social sponsors (including papaya, coconut, bananas, and Jamaican apples)

Our little laundry area where I have been doing a lot of laundry (cloth diapers = daily laundry!)

On our second floor at the top of the stairs is a little sitting area (aka Olivia's middle of the night diaper and feeding area)

Guestroom/Olivia's Room (with walk in closet area and bathroom). Olivia currently sleeps with us in our room, but as she gets older, she'll probably move into this room with her crib, so I'll probably turn it into a nursery of sorts.

Guestroom 2 (aka Betty's room in the near future, also with closet and bathroom)

Our bedroom

Master bath has a shower and this giant tub- it's the only tub in the house and while neat, I'm thinking it's not really conducive for baby tub time (thinking about when she is closer to 2 years old)

Our arrival to post was almost three weeks ago- it's been hard to say how we are liking Kingston since we don't have easy ways of getting around and exploring. Adam did rent out an Embassy motorpool car two weekends in a row so that we could do some grocery shopping and errand running. We have gone on a few adventures (I'll post about those in a future post), but pretty much during the week Adam is at work and Olivia & I hang out at home where I don't get a whole lot done- I've been working on these blog posts for days and days!